Case Study

Case Study Kelly Alexandra Trotta University of New England Meeting Student Literacy Challenges: EDU 744

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I. Student Examination For my case study, I have chosen to focus on one of my seventh grade language arts students, Braden. Braden came to our school last year in sixth grade. Prior to that, he was a student in one of our local public elementary schools. The district in which he was a student is known for low standards and a very weak language arts program starting in the earliest grades. I cannot tell you what they do with students, but I can tell you what they dont do: Braden never studied phonics, spelling, grammar, penmanship, or writing. The district does not teach cursive at any level, nor do they deal with spelling or grammar or provide formal vocabulary instruction. By fourth grade, students work only on laptops. They use this as justification for not teaching these subjects. Our math department can tell even worse stories about the gaps in their math program, believe it or not. We receive an enormous influx of students from this district every year when parents realize how deficient their children are in even basic skills areas. This is exactly what happened to Bradens parents. Bradens transcript from this school depicts a straight A student, but the same can be said for every student we accept as a transfer from there; the transcripts are almost identical. Standardized test scores tell a different story. He showed deficiencies in writing and language usage from a very early level, though his reading comprehension has always been moderate to high. Braden had a very difficult transition year in sixth grade. I am new to the school this year, so I only know about his experiences through my colleagues. Braden is unbelievably disorganized. (He has been tested and shows potential toward executive functioning disorders.) Last year, his teachers worked to try to organize him with little success. His grades were quite low, Cs at best. Seeing such low grades, his parents hit the panic button and had him tested privately. Results show that he is of average intellect (IQ 108) but that he struggles with

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organization of materials and production of written work. That said, they found no true learning disability. The parents were not satisfied with this verdict. They took him for more testing. Finally they found someone who said Braden might have slight ADD. They ran with this diagnosis. It took them until the beginning of this year to find someone willing to medicate him for this disorder. He has now tried every medication on the market with no positive results. The side effects have been the only noticeable change: nausea, exhaustion, irritability, emotional outbursts, lack of appetite, etc. He is now not medicated. Finally! To placate the parents, our special services coordinator put him on a 504 plan. His modifications include extra time on tests when necessary and preferential seating; thats it. He is not on a modified program, and his grades are not asterisked. He never needs extra time, or at least he doesnt want it. He has a private tutor three times a week who works with him on any and all problem areas, though this seems to only further exhaust him. His perpetual disorganization keeps him from being successful in school, even when writing is not a key feature of an assignment. He can never find his things, and no matter how many times we reorganize him, he slips back to bad habits in mere hours. He is like a very well-groomed Pigpen from Charlie Brown. Organization may very well be his biggest obstacle, but his writing skills are what concern me most right now. He has some of the worst spelling I have ever seen. This is not inventive or phonetic spelling because there is no phonetic sense to it at all. Having never studied grammar before sixth grade, he finds it extremely difficult as well as tedious and meaningless. Handwriting is a major stumbling point, too. Again, he constantly complains that in his old school no one cared about handwriting. It is difficult to break him of these bad habits learned from years in a different program. The program is not the only issue, though; he is also very stubborn and

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almost unwilling to change. Most jarring is his difficulty with letter formation. He loves to read and write, but somehow this is not translating. "D" is always written as "b," and "b" is always "g;" sometimes "f" is "z," and s is backward. He also uses capital and lowercase letters interchangeably. Some of this may be rushing or laziness, but the consistency of these mistakes makes me suspicious of a bigger issue. What, I do not know. Braden is an only child. His parents are very educated and ambitious people in high ranking jobs. The family, like most in our school, is very affluent. Unlike most families, however, Braden does not have a nanny. His mother is able to work from home in the afternoons, so she is there with him after school. On afternoons when she works, his mothers aunt stays with him or she arranges a play date. I have never met Bradens father. Interestingly enough, Braden also never talks about him. According to other teachers, his mother alluded to issues between her and the father last year, though they still live together and, to my knowledge, function as a family unit. Braden is currently going through a difficult time; his grandmother on his mothers side is dying of cancer. They are very close, so he is really struggling. His strong faith and the familys active prayer life seem to be comforting him a bit right now. Two of his cousins (one on his fathers side and one on his mothers side) are also in his grade at our school; the three boys, while in different classes, offer one another emotional support in a really sweet manner. Braden is on the younger side of 7th grade, with a birthday in early November. He is small for his age and still much more interested in Legos and Star Wars than girls. This sets him apart from some of the boys, although he has plenty of friends. He is definitely considered one of the dorks. He enjoys sports, but theyre not his strong suit. He tends to duck and run from balls regardless of whether they are kicked, hit, or thrown. He is a talented pianist, and plans to

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begin learning the drums over the summer at a music camp he will be attending. He is also a lover of history; he has a keen interest in wars and weaponry, but he is not bloodthirsty about it the way some of the boys can be. This has been a big year for him because he was elected to be one of our room representatives for student council. He takes this job extremely seriously; Friday meetings are the highlight of his week. He absolutely adores reading, and he also loves to write; he is currently working on what he calls his "first novel," a war story about a young soldier and his "comrades." He is beautifully behaved in class despite many distractions from unruly classmates. The worst Braden does is get too excited and jump out of his seat to answer a question. He is almost always trying to get his classmates to sign a petition for something (saving a tree, extending recess, participating in a prayer week, etc.). His latest project is a fundraiser to help pay for treatments for a local boy with cancer. He carries around an empty pretzel container from Costco, promising that if he raises $100, he will also shave his head to donate his hair. His slogan is, "Pay to see me go prematurely bald." He has passed his goal amount several times over and will soon have a smooth and shiny head to show for it. He is thrilled. As you can probably imagine, this is not the description of a super popular seventh grader. Hes a sweet boy, so the girls who are not interested in who is hot or what everyone is wearing do like him. As for the boys, he is friends with boys who are also into science-fiction, the military, and reading. He has nice friends, though some of them are very immature and known whiners; Brendan is actually quite mature in many ways and never whines. He is on the JV swim team, but is not a key member; he says he just enjoys swimming. He is also in the choir (the only boy); he is wild about singing but has never had a solo. He is also an alter server, student ambassador, and participant in the monthly rosary program. As mentioned above,

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student council is his biggest joy. He looks forward to school dances, which he enjoys planning and baking for, though he has consistently left his baked goods at home and needed someone to bring them at the last minute (Its an emergency, Miss Trotta!). He gets teased pretty regularly by the less gentle of his classmates. Some of the girls call him weird and say eww whenever he sneezes (he has pretty perpetual allergies, especially to the gallons of perfume the girls tend to douse themselves in during 7th grade). The boys who consider themselves to be cool like to step on his things when they find them scattered around his locker and desk like a bomb just went off. We reprimand them and then remind him to please, please pick up his things. Its a hard situation. He also has a very strong faith and high morals, which he is not afraid to share during religion class; this makes him stick out and causes him some grief from his classmates. Mostly, however, he lets these things roll off. He is very stubborn, though, so most of his arguments come when he goes head to head with another student about the way something should be done (i.e. projects, presentations, answers to questions, etc.). While he is very obviously different, he is a nice enough kid that very few people target him. He is quite well-adjusted socially.

II. Instruction Examination I know that I can attest to the fact that Braden spends a great deal of time reading each week, not only in my class but in all other subjects. He is also a very avid independent reader. Each quarter, I assign a book project within a certain genre or overall study of literature. I pick these based on the needs of the students, my curriculum guidelines, and student interests. For example, my third quarter book project for them involved reading dystopian literature. My
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students are obsessed with Suzanne Collinss The Hunger Games; believe it or not, they thought that this trilogy contained the only science-fiction dystopian society out there for middle schoolers to read about. Their assignments included a pre-reading prediction sheet and a summary report through which they needed to use a structured essay outline and decide on plot points (at what point does the exposition end and rising action begin, etc.). They also completed a creative project wherein they created their own Letter Book, with each page featuring decoration of one letter (A-Z) and a sentence from our study of literature matching the letter (S: A novels SETTING is the time and place in which the story is told). There are eight to ten books given as choices each quarter, all of which are grade-appropriate in reading level and content, but many of the students choose to read more than one of these on their own. Braden usually chooses to read at least half of the choices given. An extra credit incentive is given to encourage less enthusiastic readers to go beyond just one choice. I do not honestly worry about the amount Braden reads or the frequency with which he reads. What I do worry about is the amount of and quality of reading instruction Braden and my other students receive. I am lucky enough to work with Braden for social studies as well as language arts. I do not ask any of my students to read from their textbook in social studies without support. Our textbooks are extremely difficult for students to read independently as these, like so many, are written far above their grade level. As Allington states, the majority of books examined in Chall and Conards 1991 study proved that textbooks are written three to four grade levels above the grade for which they were intended (Allington, 2012). This worries me for many reasons, especially for a child like Braden. Though Braden is capable of reading on his own level, he falls into unfortunate traps like reading too quickly. When dealing with a textbook written above his level to begin with, I worry that he will speed read and miss out on
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comprehension when forced to read independently. I know that I am only teacher who reads the textbook with students; in science, health, art, music, technology, and even Spanish, students read independently regardless of how difficult the text may be. Though I am not completely content with my English/language arts time in my current school, I also am committed to making the most of the time I do have. On Mondays and Tuesdays, I teach Bradens class for forty minutes; on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, I teach them for an eighty-minute double period block. Clearly this is not enough time because I cover grammar, literature, writing, vocabulary, spelling, and penmanship. Braden needs an enormous amount of time for grammar and writing instruction, as do many of my students, which means it is difficult to also find time for reading instruction. I try to ensure that half of our ELA time is spent reading. I believe that, even taking into consideration class time and extra help after school, I still struggle to provide what I feel is adequate reading instruction. Thankfully my students have an enormous amount of fictional literature at their disposal; they eagerly choose and borrow books from my classroom library on a weekly basis (more if theyre ready) and are from affluent families who supply them with countless choices at home. According to a 1997 study, middle income students have an average of 199 books at home and 392 books at school (Allington, 2012). This study did not reflect the number of books available to high income students. I would be willing to guess that my students have double the above numbers both at home and in school. Not only do all of my students have a Kindle, Braden included, many of them have actual libraries in their homes. Even with all of these books, however, many of my students struggle to find something to read. Knowing my students is a key to being able to recommend good choices and increase interest in literature. I make a large effort to keep up with YA and childrens literature so that I can make the best possible
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recommendations to students like Braden. I have partnered my class with a local bookstore so that students can go in and find out from employees there what books I have recommended for my students. This is one area in which parents, Bradens included, have been incredibly supportive. Their seemingly unlimited budgets also make it possible for me to require my students to purchase books we read together in class so they can annotate them and develop a sense of ownership over the study of a piece of literature. With regard to differentiation, I try to use cooperative grouping at least once during each class period. I sometimes group students by ability so that I can focus on my low-achievers. More often than not, however, I heterogeneously mix my students so that they can learn from one another. Braden is fairly consistently in the low-achieving group; he fits into an on-level group when we do literary analysis, however, as he seems to have a natural ability to understand characters, conflicts, and literary devices. My class is, by and large, functioning at a low level in English/language arts. I do not have any students in my group who would qualify as advanced readers; even their standardized test scores show that they are a more academically deficient group. I individualize instruction fairly frequently for this reason. They all have such unique yet dire needs in my academic area. Each quarter I establish personalized goals for students. They have a goal-buddy with whom they work during the quarter to help them remain mindful of their goal and, hopefully, achieve it. I also check in with students on a weekly basis to see how they are progressing with their goals. Ten of my twenty students also have a weekly extra help session with me either before or after school; others can come as they please. Bradens appointment is Friday from 7:30 A.M. until 8:10 A.M., though he sometimes comes on Wednesdays during recess (only if it is raining). These extra help slots provide another arena for differentiation because I frequently have more than one student scheduled for the same time slot.
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Though I try to ensure that everything I do supports Bradens literacy growth, I know that I could always be doing more. I think time is my biggest enemy. Braden tends to struggle to get settled and begin to focus. During single periods, a quarter of my instructional time is wasted on Braden who, regardless of Do Now questions, will still be organizing his supplies at ten minutes into class. Braden also struggles with group work. He does not get along with many of his classmates; unfortunately, he travels with the same group of very difficult adolescents all day. While he is a patient boy and is largely well liked, his patience runs thin dealing with these same students all day long. Regardless of what group I place Braden in, he runs into problems; the other students ignore his frustration, putting it off as just being due to his natural quirkiness. He, on the other hand, is unable to just let it go and tends to tattle and panic about what he views as misbehavior. If the task is to discuss a question about character and the other children mention something like what time is baseball practice or whats for lunch today, Braden immediately dismisses them as being unruly and unfocused. Though he states that they are much better in my class than in less structured settings, he still finds the (normal) behavior of his adolescent peers perplexing and exasperating. I do not know whether this same situation would exist with different students because I only see him with the same peers daily. Ideally I would figure out a more positive way of grouping students so that school in general would be a better experience for Braden. I also wish I was able to provide more silent reading time for students during class. Braden frequently requests this; it was common practice in sixth grade ELA class. I seem to never find the time for them to do this. I allow them to read quietly and independently after exams or if their work is done early, but this still only allows them five minutes here or there; it is certainly

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not the sustained silent reading so often suggested. Braden, with his need for quiet and stillness but inability to create it for himself, would surely benefit from this time. III. Effective Assessments Though my students, Braden included, shy away from all forms of testing, assessment of all different types really is necessary in the classroom. Both formative and summative assessments are crucial to finding out students levels and tracking their progress. With the way my school functions, I find out who I will be teaching for the year two days before the start of school. This gives me very little time to prepare for dealing with individual students needs, modifications, and interests. While some teachers eagerly and cooperatively share information about their previous students, others seem to pass them on to the next grade with little more than a good luck. Once we receive our class lists, we have free access to students files, which provide basic information including standardized test scores, 504 plans (if in place), report cards from as far back as kindergarten, baptismal and other sacramental certificates, family data, and any honors or scholarships the child has received. Very occasionally a former teacher will have written a specific note for placement in the file; these types of notes are usually found in the files of our transfer students, when a conscientious teacher in another school has gone out of his/her way to alert us of an emerging issue or extraordinary ability. Because we are a private school, we administer different standardized tests than our public school counterparts. This fact often makes it difficult for us to have a really clear sense of prior achievement in many of our childrens cases; we see an enormous influx of students in sixth grade, when parents panic at the thought of sending their children to the public middle school. More than half of the students I teach in seventh grade came to our school last year; the

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information we have from prior assessments given in their public schools or other private schools is limited as best, and it seems that their sixth grade year alone was not enough for our own teachers to be able to fill in many gaps. Speaking a different language with regard to assessment results makes it difficult to communicate effectively across the grades. Braden falls into this public school transfer category. He transferred from a local public school district and began sixth grade in our school. His file is largely uninformative. His scores on standardized testing in writing and language usage have been low since the earliest grades, yet his report cards show straight As for years on end. He had no existing 504 Plan or IEP and as such received no special services. There is no mention made by any of his teachers on report cards about any organizational issues, writing deficiencies, reading abilities, or discrepancies between CMT scores (Connecticut Mastery Test) and class grades. Since coming to our school, he has been assessed using our usual battery of standardized tests; as mentioned, he has also been tested and was given a 504 Plan. Because he is my language arts student, I have used other assessments with him this year in addition to those used in sixth grade. Some of the assessments I have employed fall into the category of summative exams, given at very set points during the school year and used to formally evaluate students ability to achieve at a standard level, while other assessments are formative, given flexibly during the year for my own measuring purposes. Due to diocesan mandates, I administer the Blue Ribbon exam in reading comprehension and writing twice a year. While scores on these exams do find their way into students personal files, the purpose of the exam is dual: it helps teachers monitor students achievement and qualifies our school for receiving the Blue Ribbon Award (highly coveted in this area). The Blue Ribbon exam is computer-based and intended for use in reading comprehension, math, and writing. The exam is aligned with the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), which makes it more
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meaningful for us as teachers as we adopt the CCSS in Connecticut. Exams are scored automatically and immediately, which also helps educators to efficiently respond to results. The Blue Ribbon system also allows teachers to design their own tests, homework assignments, and quizzes for student practice, which can be assigned and taken by students either in school or at home through their accounts. These assessments, once designed by the classroom teacher, can be used for quarter grades. The other excellent quality of the Blue Ribbon exam is the information it is able to provide us with. The reports show exactly where each student is deficient, proficient, or advanced. The program also formulates reports showing your class as a whole and suggests activities for helping each child as well as differentiated groups of children. The twice-a-year formatted test is summative, but the fact that we are able to form our own tests, worksheets, quizzes, and activities allows it to also be used formatively. The Blue Ribbon reading comprehension test includes short passages on the students grade level. Students read these and then respond to a series of multiple choice and short response questions to test comprehension. Vocabulary understanding is a major component of this assessment. The short response questions present a challenge. Because the exam is graded by the computer, I frequently disagree with how students are scored in this section. I do have the ability, however, when using the test on my own, apart from the mandatory twice a year, to go into the system and rescore responses. The writing test includes basic editing questions and some short written pieces. There is no full length essay included in the assessment. I choose to use this exam more frequently than the mandatory twice yearly because I like more about it than I dislike; I cannot say that about most standardized tests. I also like that I can use the exam in a summative nature, as well as to create my own assessments. The fact that the Blue Ribbon is used in my school from second grade on allows me to also map how many
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students have achieved throughout their time with us. For some of my students, I am able to view their scores from second grade forward; sadly many of them display the same deficiencies as they did as young children. The reports that are formulated regarding class strengths and weaknesses are also incredibly helpful. The first mandatory test is given in late September or early October, which allows me to see (very early in the year) just where my students fall with regard to reading comprehension and writing as per the CCSS. I choose to retest formally in February when the third through sixth graders are also required to test (they are required to test three times per year for student files). My students results on the February test are not included in their files as it is not a required test time for seventh graders, but I use the scores to map their progress and hone in on still-existing weak points. We test for a final time in May; this result is included in their file. Braden tests on the low-end of his class as per the Blue Ribbon. Unlike the CMT, which he took in public school, the Blue Ribbon requires more of them with regard to language and reading comprehension. Also, by middle school, much of the reading comprehension portions of the test require students to read and understand informational texts. While Bradens comprehension of fiction is usually decent, his ability to distinguish main ideas and supporting details in informational texts is low. Because of this, Bradens weaknesses are thrown under the microscope so the speak. The program groups the grade into several categories for differentiation and instruction. Braden slots into the lowest group in all areas of literacy. In addition to the Blue Ribbon exam, my school also mandates use of the IOWA exam, or the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills, to assess students each March. Seventh graders are tested in vocabulary, reading comprehension, capitalization, punctuation, and language usage in addition to other areas of the curriculum. The entire exam is in a multiple choice format; there is no
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written response section. This is absolutely a summative exam, and I do not have any freedom or flexibility with regard to questions, time, or format. Results are not received until mid/late May, at which time they merely provide us with information regarding overall score in each tested area. Unlike the Blue Ribbon, there is neither skills breakdown nor suggestions for remediation. The fact that students take the exam each year in our school makes it easy for us to track progress from one testing year to the next. While I do not have the ability to not administer this assessment, I am also not entirely opposed to using it. First of all, it gives my students an important experience in standardized testing. It also gives me the ability to identify more than just their writing or reading deficiencies; I feel I learn almost as much about my students just watching them test as receiving and analyzing the results. Some of my brighter students have shown very low scores on standardized exams like the IOWA in years past. This year I discovered that some of my students who are accustomed to achieving high marks in school and low marks on the IOWAs are some of the worst test takers around. They do not carefully follow the lines on the scantron sheet, do not flip back and refer to passages to answer reading comprehension questions, and rush through, anxious to be done. After watching them on the first day of testing, I dedicated a class period to simple test-taking skills like using your finger or a scrap sheet under each line so that your eyes dont skip, using extra time to check answers, and filling in the scantron answer sheet as you go rather than at the end. It seems small, but I think that this assessment provided a fantastic teaching moment apart from addressing literacy issues. The reading comprehension section of the IOWAs provides the most informative assessment piece in my opinion. The passages chosen are very grade-appropriate and seemed interesting to the students. The possible answer choices also seemed very clear. Looking at students scores
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over the years, reading comprehension levels also seem to be fairly consistent. The language portion (capitalization, punctuation, and spelling) provides less information I feel. I dislike the format, and I have heard countless times from the students that they become quickly overwhelmed and confused, resulting in more guesses than actual focused efforts. Scores from year to year on these tests show enormous fluctuation, which also makes me wary. I am,

however, very pleased with the vocabulary section. Not only are the words beautifully appropriate, the test itself provides excellent SAT prep. I know that my students are only in middle school, but many of their parents already have them enrolled in SAT prep classes for this coming summer. I also appreciate that vocabulary is taken seriously and is so carefully assessed. Even though I have to wait until May to see results, I think that the IOWAs help me to provide even more information to next years teachers about my students strengths and weaknesses. I also find that I use information from these exams when conferencing with parents. For example, some of my parents seem to feel that their children should be straight A students in vocabulary in particular. They attempt to explain to me that it is just vocabulary, and that their child is very good with words. Being able to pull out vocabulary scores from year to year on the IOWAs helps me to support lower marks in vocabulary and make the point that perhaps this is an area that they need to spend more time on at home. It should also be noted that our IOWA exam includes an IQ assessment every other year (1st, 3rd, 5th, and 7th grades). This is, undoubtedly, hugely beneficial information. Seventh grade information in this area is incredibly important because our students who transfer in for sixth grade may or may not have recent results in IQ. Bradens IOWA results from sixth grade were very troubling. His scores contributed to him gaining a 504 plan for seventh grade. His lowest scores were in language (specifically capitalization, punctuation, and spelling) and reading comprehension (specifically vocabulary).
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He scored at or below the third grade level in all areas except usage and expression (fifth grade level) and the analysis portion of the exam (fifth grade level). During the year, I also try to ensure that each of my students is tested using a DRA or Developmental Reading Assessment. This assessment is given individually. I make time to meet one-on-one with each of my students during the first quarter of the year. The DRA assesses several areas within literacy, including fluency, reading comprehension, and literary engagement. Information provided by the assessment helps me to recommend books to students that are appropriate to their reading level. It also allows me to become aware, in a more substantive way, of deficiencies in reading areas. Not all teachers in my building use the DRA, but our special education coordinator believes very highly in the importance of this assessment. Once I test students using the DRA, I am able to share the results with her and game plan for remediation. I choose to use this test because I highly believe in the importance of testing in all areas of literacy development. It also allows me to conference well with parents immediately at the start of th year regarding my literacy concerns; parents seem to appreciate one-on-one testing and the results compiled above typical standardized testing results, or even scores on in-class exams and quizzes. Bradens DRA results further displayed low reading comprehension when using informational texts. His fluency rates are normal, but he is held back even in this area by lack of vocabulary understanding. I carefully monitor student progress throughout the year through the Blue Ribbon system by creating my own assessments. I draw upon results from the most recent formal Blue Ribbon assessment to create personalized quizzes, homework assignments, and tests for students. Every assessment, no matter how small, that I assign on student accounts are scored and sent to my account where I can view them and adjust as needed. Each of my students has their own plan
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and program, which I have established for them using the Blue Ribbon system. These assessments are formative, and I am free to alter them to best suit the needs of each child. After the mid-year assessment, plans and programs frequently change. For example, some students who struggle with vocabulary understanding in the initial assessment have a program heavy in this area until the mid-year assessment; frequently they show improvement in this area, while other areas still require remediation. This remediation takes place until the final assessment, at which time we hope for overall improvement. Not only does this help me track student progress, it also allows me to communicate this progress easily (automatically in a computerized fashion) with other faculty. The Blue Ribbon is something we all understanding and know how to use because of the bi-/tri-yearly requirements; Blue Ribbon scores are communicated in a language we all understand. At the end of each year, students information on any and all assessments through Blue Ribbon is sent to the following years teacher to use as they please. I also use a fluency assessment from the McMillian/McGraw Treasures program. While it does include a brief reading comprehension element, its primary function is to assess fluency. The assessment is given one-on-one. I meet with students over two weeks at the beginning of each quarter and again during the last week of school. I have been using this assessment and schedule for almost three years, and I have great confidence in its ability to measure fluency. I am the only teacher who uses this method, and I do so by choice. During our assessment session, one student and I sit in a quiet room with a pre-chosen selection written at the seventh grade level. The student reads the entire selection aloud while I set a stop watch for sixty seconds, during which time I monitor phonetic accuracy, intonation, and diction. The total words read correctly per that one minute are calculated. Upon completion of the reading, students are asked three comprehension questions: one at a very basic level, one at a grade-appropriate level, and
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one that requires higher thinking skills. If students answer inaccurately, they may go back and read over the selection to double check responses. Changes in answers must also be noted. The results of Bradens fluency testing were similar to those of the DRA. This assessment surely shows that Braden needs work in vocabulary and in identification of main ideas. However, he is very capable of critical thinking and analysis. The comprehension piece is for my information only and is honestly rarely a surprise (there are so many other ways in which this is monitored); the fluency component is more meaningful to me as I have less ways of assessing this on a constant basis. The relatively short amount of time it takes to administer this assessment also makes it much easier to use frequently than something like the DRA. I monitor progress each quarter and share results with parents. In turn, parents may choose to participate (or not) in our classs year-long Read Aloud Campaign. Through this program, which I designed, parents and children commit to a certain amount of read aloud time together per week. They may choose any books they like, and read aloud responsibilities are shared between parent and child. At the end of each quarter, the parent-child teams report back to me through an informal survey listing Books We Loved, Books We Didnt Love, Things Mom/Dad Learned, Things childs name- Learned. At the end of the year, everyone who participates gets together in school for a Reading Appreciation Night. Pairs bring in their favorite read aloud choice from throughout the year to put into a grab bag to be shared with other pairs. They are also invited to bring a small excerpt from something they enjoyed to read aloud to the group and show off their skills. Having quarterly information to share with parents about their own childs fluency development really drives home the idea of the parent/teacher team. Parents love feeling like they are part of their childs improvement in such a

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crucial area. Interestingly enough, the children who improve most throughout the year in fluency are the ones who spend the year reading aloud with mom/dad. All of this information, from all of these assessments, coupled with work we complete throughout the year, allows me to really know my students. This knowledge, gathered through summative and formative assessment, can then be compiled and communicated to parents, future teachers, and even the child him/herself. I believe it is important for a student to have knowledge of and control over their own literacy development. For this reason, I also work with students to form quarterly literacy goals. These are personalized and actively monitored and worked on throughout the quarter. Each child has a partner or goal buddy who helps them stay on task with regard to their goal; I also constantly assess their adherence to and progress with the stated goal. Parents also know about these goals, as they must sign off on the contract made quarterly between the child and I. I also share results with children, scheduling private meetings with each student to discuss Blue Ribbon results, IOWA scores, fluency tests, and even their DRA. We discuss what they need to work on, what they should be proud of, and what we both believe about their abilities. They know they are supported, but they also know that they will be held accountable. I believe these assessments are only really valid and truly reflective of ability if students feel they are meaningful.

IV. Planning Interventions Interventions in literacy attempt to remediate deficiencies students exhibit with regard to reading and writing. While Braden has been placed on a 504 plan, I do not believe that he is a LD (learning disabled) student. Some of the teachers, however, have been misled by the
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products of his rushed efforts and his poor standardized test scores. While he loves reading and reads constantly, his comprehension is frequently not where it needs to be. Braden needs to learn to slow down so that he can effectively identify main ideas and supporting details within texts. For whatever reason, I do not think that Braden received appropriate instruction in this area in the earlier grades. For this reason, he now struggles a great deal to use positive reading comprehension strategies independently. To help him become a more comprehensive independent reader, I have attempted several forms of intervention in reading this year across the three tiers of RTI. Using a tier three approach to intervention, I decided to work with Braden on vocabulary development. Bradens IOWA scores, Blue Ribbon scores, and DRA all revealed that Bradens vocabulary understanding is significantly below average. According to his Blue Ribbon assessment, Braden struggles to understand even basic words when used in unfamiliar contexts or with added prefixes/suffixes. He also does not seem to be using context clues to hypothesize new words meanings. The DRA and the McMillian/McGraw Fluency test both revealed that, though Braden is a strong oral reader, when he comes across strange words he accelerates his reading pace, as if to quickly make the unknown word go away. He is even reticent to go back and investigate these words beyond decoding them phonetically. It seems as if he is afraid of them. Vocabulary insecurities, not to mention actual deficiencies, can pull down overall reading comprehension in a major way. This made it a necessary area for intense intervention. We do not have an intervention program in place in my school for vocabulary. When I consulted our special services coordinator, she gave me some suggestions with regard to strategies, but she did not have a specific program to offer. Without money in the budget to purchase a program or PD funds to allow for training in a certain technique, I decided to design
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my own program. We use the Sadlier vocabulary series from kindergarten through eighth grade. This program works beautifully if it is followed through all the way from the lowest to highest grades. For Braden, however, it is less effective because he missed out on the important strategies in vocabulary understanding provided in the lower grades. For this reason, I chose to work one-on-one with Braden using some of the lessons included in the lower grade editions of the vocabulary series. When I made this decision in mid-October, my colleagues were kind enough to give me copies of lessons and workbook pages they felt were the most important from each of their grade levels (K-6). I compiled this information and created a intervention-based vocabulary program specifically for Braden. From the lessons in first through third grades, I worked with Braden on suffixes and prefixes. Some of these he had figured out on his own, which is not surprising being that he reads so frequently. Many of them, however, simply had not occurred to him. His mother informs me that he did not cover these in his previous school, which I find unbelievable; other parents confirm this information, but that does not make it less troubling. We practiced adding prefixes and suffixes to known words to manipulate their meanings. I then took a great deal from the fourth and fifth grade vocabulary lessons regarding context clues, tricks for using words that can function as multiple parts of speech, synonyms, and antonyms. The teachers from these grades were extremely generous with me, sharing flashcards, fun activities, and really interesting sample readings for practice. To make the program more relevant for Braden as a 7th grader, we worked to apply lessons learned though our sessions to our current classroom vocabulary. We even started working on vocabulary analogies, which, it turns out, Braden loves! Braden and I worked with this program twice weekly from late-October through earlyMarch. Our sessions were before school on Mondays and Fridays for half an hour. He also had
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independent work in between sessions, which he worked on both alone and with his private tutor. We stopped working together last month only because his grandmother passed away. I hope to be able to continue with our work soon because Braden was having enormous progress in vocabulary. Recent assessments through the Blue Ribbon program reflect that Bradens vocabulary understanding has come up two to three grade levels since the initial testing at the beginning of the year. I am seeing improvements in his reading comprehension as well, specifically in his understanding of informational texts in social studies. His fluency testing also seems to point to a better ability to use context clues to derive word meanings. I plan to re-test Braden using the DRA in June, and I hope the same progress is evident through this assessment. As previously stated, our Blue Ribbon system also has an intervention component, which I use actively with my entire class. Under this system, each child has a personalized educational plan to remediate problem areas in literacy. We use the Blue Ribbon program during class time once a week. I would expand this time, but unfortunately it is a computerized system which requires borrowing the laptop cart. Twelve classes share the same cart, so time is limited. Students have work assigned on the Blue Ribbon system, to be completed at home or in the computer lab, three times per week. I constantly check their progress via my page, which allows me to access their work, update their plans, and tweak upcoming assignments accordingly. Bradens program is heaviest in language usage and reading comprehension. He is frequently assigned short passages to read and respond to by writing using the computer. The lessons designed for him work with techniques to help him identify main ideas and supporting details. I was able to tweak his assignments to give him practice in his main trouble area: informational texts. While Braden frequently comprehends fiction quite proficiently, informational pieces are much more of a challenge to him. As afore mentioned, I believe some
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of this struggle has to do with vocabulary understanding; however, I also know that, at the start of seventh grade, Braden could read pages upon pages in his textbook and then, when asked, not be able to accurately tell you exactly what the main idea of what he read was. The writing portion of his program also focuses on summarizing and retelling techniques, which is something I have been stressing with him in class as well. The language usage section encourages him to slow down and use self-editing strategies, even providing writing and editing checklists. This discipline will hopefully spill over into his reading, teaching him to take his time when needed. Bradens progress through this system has been quite good. The Blue Ribbon maps all progress, not just that displayed by formal tri-yearly assessments. This is particularly beneficial because Bradens scores are always lower when he knows it is a test. The graph below represents his progress in overall reading comprehension from October through early April:

B den'sProg sin R dingComprehens ra res ea ion

60 50 40 30 20 10 0 O ctober November December Ja ry nua F ebrua ry Ma rch April

B R lue ibbonS cores

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He has improved steadily throughout the year, though we saw a slight dip in March coinciding with his grandmothers hospitalization and death. He is now above the fiftieth percentile, which puts him into a different category within the seventh grade; he has moved from our deficient/at risk group in May of sixth grade to the basic level group by October of seventh grade, and now the proficient group as of February of this year. This intervention works really well for Braden for several reasons. For starters, it is something that he can work on both at home and in school. He also enjoys using the computer; he has a much easier time typing than he does writing in his own penmanship, largely due to the situation at his previous school. The system provides students with immediate feedback, instruction, and scores, which Braden really appreciates. I can also upload informative exercises and specific lessons for my students, which is something I do frequently for Braden. His mother also appreciates the constant source of information it provides. There are always extra practice exercises available to him which he works on with his mother and private tutor over school breaks and/or when he is out sick. I like the fact that this system provides me with a full breakdown of his strengths, weaknesses, and completed work. This allows me to stay abreast of his progress and best address his changing needs. Next year our school hopes to purchase a program for our middle schoolers known as SuccessMaker, a computerized intervention and instruction method for reading designed by Pearson Education group. We have purchased the elementary edition for this coming year, so we hope that it goes well enough for us to be able to incorporate the middle school portion come January, 2013. The outline of the program will allow us to use it in conjunction with our already existing language arts programs. SuccessMaker creates VLEs, or Virtual Learning Environments, personalized to each students various needs. Once students have been assessed,
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the program will track their development and assign material to provide remediation, intervention, enrichment, and supplemental instruction. The reading/language portion of SuccessMaker for middle schoolers is designed to provide development in areas of adolescent literacy including reading comprehension, phonemic awareness (decoding), vocabulary, and fluency. The RTI aspect of the program includes tutorials and goal formation information, which will work well with what I already do in class. Much like the Blue Ribbon system, SuccessMaker allows students to move through personalized programs at their own pace. As the classroom teacher, I can remotely monitor their progress on the computer or even print out work for in class or as homework assignments. The program is also designed to suit the varied needs of a differentiated classroom. The Fundamentals portion of the program is intended to provide intervention, while the the Exploreware technology in the program provides practice for more sophisticated literacy techniques and skills. The programs can run independently or together to both enrich and remediate simultaneously. I am specifically interested in using this program with Braden because it remediates and challenges at the same time. Braden is bright but has a lot of struggles to overcome. I am always careful to make sure that I do not dumb things down for him; he is capable of understanding pretty complex ideas and effectively analyzing literature. Id like him to have the opportunity to do these things while still working on his weak basic skills. This is also the kind of system I can use continuously throughout the year, much like the Blue Ribbon. The fact that I can print out work for in class and differentiate whole-class instruction through the various lessons provided on the program is also very appealing. This would allow the program to be effectively used across various tiers of intervention. Though I will not be Bradens language arts teacher next year, I think it would be fantastic for his teacher to be able to use this program. The

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Blue Ribbon system ends in seventh grade, so without a new program in place Bradens eighth grade teacher will have one less method of intervention to use. Because Braden is familiar with systems providing a VLE, I think this program would work well for him next year. Working with Braden through various tiers of intervention this year, I quickly noticed that he was more than capable of excellent work and grade-appropriate comprehension. That said, he did not naturally utilize effective tools when working on his own. This further perpetuated other teachers notions that Braden may have learning disabilities. As Scalon and Sweeny point out, . . . many children who are identified as learning-disabled (at least in reading) qualify for that classification not because there is something inherently wrong with the child but because the childs early instruction was not sufficiently responsive to their instructional needs (Johnston, 2010). Until Braden had experienced a wide range of intervention and remediation, which he has not until now, I was not content in labeling him as an LD child. After a year of working with him, I feel comfortable saying that he has serious deficiencies but no disabilities. The key to Bradens intervention is filling in his many gaps and holding him to high standards of excellence. My intervention plan for Braden for the remainder of the year includes continuing techniques of remediation we have been using thus far. I would like to return to our vocabulary program on a weekly basis. I also plan to retest Braden using the DRA. His next formal Blue Ribbon assessment in coming up; even knowing that he does not test well, I am anxious to see what formal progress has been made. I am encouraging Braden to join the book club I will be running this summer for my students. As I said, Braden reads plenty; I just worry sometimes about what he misses because of rushing and neglecting to use his comprehension techniques effectively. Braden will definitely be working with me this summer in grammar and writing; I

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plan to continue working with him using the Blue Ribbon system, as well as a grammar program I am attempting to design for him using my own research, the information I have gleaned from this course, and materials I have gathered from my colleagues. I will be working further with Braden using informational texts since this is an area of weakness for him. Bradens IOWA scores for this year arrived last week. The results were very troubling, but they were also not completely accurate. To explain, Braden was absent during IOWAs week because of his grandmothers death. The day he returned, he spent the morning testing with our special services coordinator. He had to leave school early, in the middle of testing, because he was just too upset still about the loss of his beloved grandmother. The following day, despite tears and upset, he finished the testing; in order to fit everything in and send the exams out on time, he was given no breaks and was not encouraged to take advantage of the extra time allowed him by his 504 plan. I did not know these things at the time, but when I did find out shortly afterward, I was extremely upset. His results do not reflect all that he knows nor how much he has improved. He scored below a first grade level in almost every subject; that is not the Braden I know so well. This is another perfect example of how many variables go into students assessments. Someone looking at Bradens file from an outside perspective will see only numbers, not recognizing that he was not emotionally healthy during testing. They will not know all that we have worked on together this year, nor will they realize how bright he really is and how hard he tries. It is my hope that, through our work, he will eventually have his turn to shine and really show all that he is capable of, freeing himself from unfair labels given only because a boy with plenty of intelligence was the victim of a poor educational system. One naturally wonders just how many Bradens are sitting in Americas classrooms today.

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References Allington, R. L. (2012). What Really Matters for Struggling Readers (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc. Scanlon, D. M., & Sweeney, J. M. (2010). Response to Intervention: An Overview: New Hope for Struggling Readers. In P. H. Johnston (Ed.), RTI in Literacy- Responsive and Comprehensive. Newark, DE: International Reading Association. SuccessMaker 5. (n.d.). Pearson Education: SuccessMaker. Retrieved April 21, 2012, from http://www.pearsonschool.com/index.cfm?locator=PSZk99

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